11

WALLACE FESSENDEN

Eight hundred spectators filled Pittsburgh’s Recreation Park even though the threat of rain loomed on the horizon. On that day in June 1889, two of the National League’s finest teams, the Pittsburgh Alleghenys and the Washington Senators, met each other on the field. By the third inning, the Alleghenys had done a remarkable job of giving themselves an advantage, almost assuring the home team of a win in the eyes of the fans. However, with rain drizzling on the field, the Senators were able to tie up the score in the fourth inning. As the Senators’ sudden success was seemingly timed with the rain, the Pittsburgh fans saw the rain as a “curse” on their team.

However, as the rain fell even harder, the home team was able to garner two more runs in the first half of the fifth inning. The crowd no longer saw the rain as a curse. Instead, “everybody was delighted that the rain was so prolific and threatening,” according to the Pittsburg Dispatch . Despite no sign of the rain letting up, the umpire yelled, “Play ball!” steadfastly refusing to end the game. A reporter for the newspaper also noted that as the rain continued to pour down, “up went groans from the bleaching board crowds that were concealed under umbrellas.” The umpire who was met with groans of disapproval from the crowd was none other than Windham’s own Wallace Fessenden.

Stephen Fessenden was the first of his family to reside in Windham, moving to town from Boston in about 1830. Fessenden had been a hardware merchant in Boston for several years before his father purchased Isaac Senter’s mill in Windham. The saw- and gristmill was purchased as a gift for Stephen. When he arrived with his family, he wasted no time in erecting a new shingle and clapboard mill, as well as a building for carding rolls, which would have been necessary for wool production. However, Fessenden soon branched out into new business pursuits, expanding his mill operation to include the manufacture of flannels. His business acumen, or lack thereof, is recorded in the History of Windham in New Hampshire (Rockingham County), 1719–1883 :

He was not a successful manufacturer nor a good financier. He seemed to have but little idea of the value of money,—when he had it, it was used freely; and When he was short of it, he was too free in contracting debts, and making Promises of payment which it was impossible for him to fulfil [sic].

Fortunately, Fessenden mended his ways later in life and became much more prosperous and happy. His business was responsible for the employment of about thirty individuals in the community, many of whom were forced to find work elsewhere after his death. Stephen and his wife, Caroline, had twelve children between 1820 and 1836. Interestingly, Caroline gave birth to two sets of twins on two separate occasions. On May 10, 1831, she gave birth to Joshua Allan and Caroline Elizabeth; Joshua died just over a year later, while Caroline Elizabeth lived an average, healthy life. Exactly two years after the date of the birth of her first set of twins, Caroline gave birth to her second set of twins, Benjamin and Nancy. Benjamin died the day after his birth and Nancy died a day later.

Stephen’s and Caroline’s eldest son, David, enlisted in Company C of the Thirteenth New Hampshire Volunteer Regiment during the Civil War. Although he had a mostly unremarkable career in fighting for the Union, David did see action at the Battle of Fredericksburg. David did not have any children with his first wife, Susan Smith, and it is unknown how that marriage ended. Alice Sellars of Castine, Maine, was David’s second wife, with whom he raised a family in Windham.

Wallace Clifton Fessenden was born on October 5, 1860, to parents David and Alice Fessenden. Although relatively little is known about Wallace’s childhood, it is likely he relocated to Lynn, Massachusetts, with his family sometime as a young child. Whether or not he was first exposed to the game of baseball in Windham or Lynn is unknown, but his earliest recorded involvement with baseball was as a player and manager for the Lynn team of the Massachusetts State Association in 1884. Fessenden was also the manager of the Salem, Massachusetts team of the New England League. The New England League was an association of minor-league baseball teams throughout the New England region. Originally the Salem Fairies, the team changed its name to the Salem Witches in 1888, the new name being more reflective of Salem’s past.

In 1889, Fessenden became an umpire for the National League, umpiring a total of fifty-three games over the span of two seasons. One of the games was the Pittsburgh versus Washington matchup that took place on June 25, 1889, despite the rain. Moving into the first half of the sixth inning, no additional runs were scored by the home team. As the home team’s last batter struck out, there were demands from the team that the game be called due to the downpour. Despite their pleas to end the game, Arthur Irwin went up to bat for the Senators in the second half of the sixth inning.

Following the rules of nineteenth-century American baseball, two strikes had been called against the Senators before Fessenden decided to call the game. The Pittsburg Dispatch reported that the umpire’s decision was the “wisest [ruling] he has made during his visit here.” In the certainly biased opinion of Pittsburgh fans, Fessenden had routinely made close calls in favor of the Senators, appearing as though he favored the visiting team. Despite what was thought of Fessenden’s apparent impartiality, the Alleghenys ended the game with a seven-to-five win over the Senators.

This was not the first game in which Fessenden’s calls were questioned. In the summer of 1888, the Saint Paul Daily Globe took a jab at Fessenden’s umpiring with the headline “Even Umpire Fessenden Couldn’t Prevent Apostles from Winning.” Clearly the Saint Paul sportswriter took issue with Fessenden despite his team’s win over the Kansas City Blues. Even with home field advantage, the Blues were consistently outplayed, and the Apostles remained in the lead for the entirety of the game. However, a simple victory was seemingly not satisfactory for the fans of the Apostles, as the Saint Paul Daily Globe reported that “had it not been for some costly errors and miserable decisions by the umpire, Fessenden, the Blues would have been treated with a coat of whitewash.” The newspaper reporter accused Fessenden of letting four runs by the Apostles go unrecorded. Not that those four runs truly mattered, as the Apostles won the game with a six-run lead, the final score being ten to four.

On another occasion, Fessenden was accused of aiding the visiting team by not being fully familiarized with the rules of the Northwestern League. However, Fessenden’s contribution to the world of baseball is not limited to his career as an umpire. He is credited with discovering one of baseball’s all time greats, Hall of Famer Hugh Duffy. In fact, it is recorded that Fessenden took pride in his self-proclaimed talent for discovering unrecognized talent. Unfortunately for Fessenden, one of the backers of the team he managed did not have much money to invest in the club, and when money was spent, it was wasted foolishly. Instead of investing money in hiring better players and signing them to lucrative but fair contracts, the money was spent in attempts to make the existing players better. Such expenditures were relatively unsuccessful, and Fessenden was left begging for more money to hire better players.

When Duffy was chosen by Fessenden to play for the Salem Fairies in 1886, he was provided with twenty-five dollars upfront as well as five dollars a week plus boarding, terms the team’s backer had to be persuaded to agree to. If Duffy’s rookie game was an indication of his talent, the investment would prove to be a poor one. As an outfielder, Duffy missed several balls and fumbled around the field making other mistakes. After that game, both Duffy and Fessenden were fired, but in a stroke of luck, the team was sold that night. The new owner welcomed the two back for a second chance.

The new owner could not have regretted his decision. Duffy went on to hit a home run and played exceptionally well as an outfielder in that second game. Although Duffy played professionally until 1906, he was in the prime of his career in 1894, when he played for the Boston Beaneaters. During that season he set the record, which still stands, for the highest single season batting average; Duffy ended the season with just under a .440. His involvement in baseball continued until the last years of his life, and in 1945, he was inducted into the Hall of Fame.

Wallace Fessenden’s baseball career was not nearly as long. After retiring from umpiring in the early 1890s, he became involved in horse racing. By the early 1900s, Fessenden was making a fortune with his race horses. Most notably, in 1903, a Thoroughbred horse he owned, Pass Book, won him $50,000 at the Jamaica track; the sum would be equivalent to over $1.3 million in 2016. At a race at the Aqueduct track in 1904, Pass Book won another $30,000. However, Fessenden might have been so successful with Pass Book only due to a wellplanned lie. It was reported that Fessenden had been responsible for spreading a report about Pass Book being in poor health due to suffering through a bad winter. While this report was making its way around bet-making circles, Fessenden worked to convince a few of his Wall Street broker friends to bet on Pass Book at odds of one hundred to one.

Shortly before the race, Pass Book received special training to ensure he would be able to compensate for the possibility of an unskilled jockey. Any such worries were certainly abated when one of the best riders in the country was hired for the race. On the day of the race, the Wall Street men went around placing small bets of just ten or twenty dollars at odds of between fifty to one and thirty to one. However, so many bets were placed that the odds eventually dropped to about ten to one. When the race was over and Pass Book was victorious, it is reported that the trainers of the other horses grew tired of watching Fessenden counting his many thousands of dollars.

Fessenden’s winnings allowed him to live comfortably for the rest of his natural life. However, after the publicity debacle with Pass Book, Fessenden was unable to maintain his winning streak. Although there is little known about the final decades of his life, he likely spent the entirety of those decades at his residence in New York City. He never married, fathered no children and had no contact with his family from Windham. On May 16, 1935, Wallace Clifton Fessenden passed away in New York City at the age of seventy-four.